Online Etiquette

General:

1. Take steps to make sure any attachments you include with emails or discussion postings a)are relevant to the topic, b) are free from spyware, worms or viruses, and c) do not incorporate offensive images or other material without academic merit.
2. Respond in a timely manner to requests made to you by the instructor or your fellow students.
3. Treat your online classroom as you would any other classroom, being prompt, professional and courteous in all your interactions with your peers and instructors.
4. Ask questions when you don't understand. Online classes require an extra level of personal engagement from you to be effective. Use all the tools available to communicate your ideas and concerns to ensure a well-rounded academic experience for yourself.
5. Follow the principles of fair use when incorporating copyrighted material into classroom assessments and communications.

Discussion Boards:

1. To the best of your ability, use proper grammar. Abbreviations, slang, and SMS-style codes work well for informal communication with friends, but in a classroom a more professional and academic mode of communication is expected.
2. Avoid posting messages in ALL CAPS. This is considered shouting and is impolite.
3. Stay on topic. Classroom discussion boards are for classroom learning and are best used for completing the assignments and tasks given by your instructors. When responding to another student, try to limit your comments to issues raised by him or her that relate directly to the work at hand.
4. Give posts descriptive headings to make them easier for other students to scan.
5. Refer to specifics in the original post when making a reply. You may want to use a short quote, or perhaps just summarize a key point.
6. Avoid using abusive language and making personal attacks. If you feel threatened by what another student has written, contact your instructor and/or an administrator. Never try to respond directly to such an attack through the discussion board as this can just fan the flames and make a bad situation worse.

Email:

1. Be brief. If you are emailing the instructor or another student about an issue, try to make your point clearly and succinctly. Include all relevant details needed to understand your situation. This will reduce the number of messages sent back and forth to clear up misunderstandings.
2. Use classroom email for classroom issues. If you are sending emails within your classroom environment using WebCT's email interface, be aware that anything you send to another student or to your instructor is not really private in that all emails (along with discussion boards, grades and assessments) may be saved as part of the record of the class at the end of the term.
3. Put a descriptive summary of your message in the subject heading. This makes it easier for your recipient to quickly scan messages to see what they are about.
4. As with discussion boards, avoid using abusive language and making personal attacks. Again, if you feel threatened by what another student has written to you, contact your instructor and/or an administrator.

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